Update: 21 May 2009

Fact: Correct internal linking can get a deep level web page to top rankings without any external incoming links. Case in point, this post is #5 for “seo cape town” in google.co.za local search and #8 in google.co.za world wide search. This article is competing against top level web pages with high Page Ranks yet it defies the belief of  external links are the best way to ensure high rankings for a competitive keyword/phrase.

The results are in and interesting results they are.

Since the long wait of my previous analysis (9 days ago – 3 Dec 2008), I have noticed Google has different results from upper to lower case searches.  The amount of search results have stayed the same, just that the results for one or two sites in the top 10 have changed slightly, namely mine.

- Upper Case Results:

#6 in google.co.za (World Wide) for ‘SEO Cape Town’ – www.webgrowth.biz/2008/12/05/seo-cape-town-analysis/

#18 in google.co.za (World Wide) for ‘SEO Cape Town’ – www.webgrowth.biz

– Search Results = 195, 000

#7 in google.co.za (Local) for ‘SEO Cape Town’ – www.webgrowth.biz/2008/12/05/seo-cape-town-analysis/

#6 in google.co.za (Local) for ‘SEO Cape Town’ – www.webgrowth.biz

– Search Results = 38, 100

- lower case results:

#9 in google.co.za (World Wide) for ‘seo cape town’ – www.webgrowth.biz/2008/12/05/seo-cape-town-analysis/

#18 in google.co.za (World Wide) for ‘seo cape town’ – www.webgrowth.biz

– Search Results = 195, 000

#7 in google.co.za (Local) for ‘seo cape town’ – www.webgrowth.biz/2008/12/05/seo-cape-town-analysis/

#11 in google.co.za (Local) for ‘seo cape town’ – www.webgrowth.biz

– Search Results = 38, 100

Interestingly the homepage is ranked higher for upper case than to lower case in google.co.za (world wide) by 5 positions.  Why is this so?  I estimate 85% my targeted keywords throughout the WebGrowth website are Upper Case.  This could be a contributing factor.

It must be noted that my settings for a geographical target are not focused on any specific country.  If I type in ‘seo cape town’ in google.co.uk (world wide) the above mentioned blog post is ranked #8.  If I had set the geographical focus on South Africa, the UK ranking would not be possible but then who is going to search ‘seo cape town’ in the UK?  Not many I presume…

So for the next and final analysis for ‘seo cape town’ I am going to set my geographical target to google.co.za and see how this affects the post’s rankings.    I predict that the local rankings should be nearer to #1 and world wide rankings won’t appear anywhere.  mmm…  the opportunity cost?

I have kept the same URL as in Part 2 of this series but I have changed the title tag slightly.  I have inserted SEO twice, one in Upper Case and one in lower case.

With the geographic target set to South Africa and targeting both upper and lower case I am hoping this is my power article that elevates it to #1.

What I can tell you from this third of a four part series is the power of a blog post is immense.  You are putting your company in the limelight for only a few days but if written well and you provide informative content, it requires one blogger/webmaster to link back to your post and you may find your post being in a top ranked position for quite a bit longer.

My goal for the next series is to measure how long it will take for me to get to #1 for a more competitive keyword without being spammy.

You can download the new WordPress version from here.

#9 in google.co.za (local) for ‘seo cape town’ – http://www.webgrowth.biz (remained in the same position)

#13 in google.co.za (local) for ‘seo cape town’ – http://www.webgrowth.biz/2008/11/30/seo-analysis-blogs/ (new to index)

#11 in google.co.za (world wide) for ‘seo cape town’ – http://www.webgrowth.biz (remained in the same position)

#12 in google.co.za (world wide) for ‘seo cape town’ – http://www.webgrowth.biz/2008/11/30/seo-analysis-blogs/ (new to index)

In my previous article I mention that my blog post (page rank 0) focusing on keyphrase ‘social media marketing’ went to #1 in google.co.za (local) immediately after it was indexed and my homepage (page rank 3) ranking slipped from #9 to #13 (for keyphrase ‘social media marketing’).  As we can see from the above data that the post focusing on keyphrase ‘SEO Cape Town’ never beat my homepage in rankings. It was always lagging behind.

What could the possible reasons be?

You will notice that I inserted ‘SEO’ in the beginning of the title tag and ‘Cape Town’ at the end with ‘search engine optimisation analysis’ separating the two. The article that went to #1 in google.co.za had ‘social media marketing’ in the beginning of the title tag (not separated by any words) with ‘Ameriquest’ at the end of the title tag. The fact that the focused keyphrase was at the beginning tells the search engines that these are the most important keywords… ahhh… so maybe it was a mistake on my part?? Next time I should not separate my targeted keywords.

For this article I have inserted ‘SEO Cape Town’ in the beginning of the title tag with no words separating them.   I will insert one more word at the end so it will remain the same density as the post that went #1 for ‘social media marketing’.  I worry though that this may look too spammy…  I guess we are going to have to wait and see.  Test, test and test again.

I should also insert ‘SEO Cape Town’ into the URL.

mmm…

I am a bit nervous that I am going overboard with the keywords but hey, nothing ventured nothing gained!  I am pushing the boundaries with keyword density on this article but let’s see how Google reacts to it.

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[poll id="8"]

4 days later, Saturday (29 Nov 2008), this post was no where to be seen in Google’s index but my homepage has shot up from #13 to #3 in google.co.za for keyphrase ‘social media marketing’.

These are interesting changes; I have never seen such volatile movement over such a short period of time. What’s up with Google?  Now the homepage being the dominant page has more chance of staying at the current ranking (#3) for a longer period because of its higher page strength (according to SEOmoz).  I get the feeling that Google rewards bloggers who already have high search engine rankings for a particular keyword; a new blog post (but weaker page strength) elevates the ranking for that particular keyword even further. It also depends on the frequency of the blog posts (which one Google favours will be figured out in my future research).

It’ll be interesting to see what happens with this post’s rankings for keywords ‘SEO’ and ‘search engine optimisation’; WebGrowth’s homepage is currently ranked #9 in google.co.za for ‘SEO Cape Town’.

There are 37 500 search results for ‘SEO Cape Town’ and 137 000 search results for ‘social media marketing’ in google.co.za.  So in theory it would be much easier achieving #1 for ‘SEO Cape Town’ than it was for ‘social media marketing’.  Please bare in mind though that sometimes it is easier to move from rankings #50 to #10 than it is to move from #10 to #5. There are many variables to be taken into account.

I will report back with results in a few days…